Although the prototype doesn't offer significant savings over wired solar panels for the moment, the artificial leaf concept is still considered inspirational, bringing money and attention to the field of solar fuels, chemists said at a meeting at Imperial College London on 18 May. “When I came into this field, there was nothing close to a wafer you could drop into water and see hydrogen and oxygen bubbling off,” said Philipp Kurz, an inorganic chemist at the University of Kiel in Germany. “The artificial leaf is important in its design and simplicity,” Nocera adds.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on May 23, 2012.

7 Comments

1. 1. r0b3m4n 06:06 PM 5/23/12

   Sounds like your leaf needs to learn to multiply itself. Perhaps while shading like a normal tree does. Oh and becoming a WiFi point. :)

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2. 2. jtdwyer 10:04 PM 5/23/12

   "The device offers few savings over other ways to make hydrogen from sunlight, the company says."
   
   If I recall correctly, that was the primary issue raised concerning this 'elegant' electrolysis device - in these pages two years ago...
   http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2010/03/03/shift-happens-will-artificial-photosynthesis-power-the-world/
   
   I guess they successfully soaked the venture capitalists without a reasonable ROI justification - again.

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3. 3. lamorpa 08:54 AM 5/24/12

   Funny the headline doesn't say, "MIT's Artificial Leaf Fails' Headlines are always to quick to throw MIT into invention announcements, why the omission when the result is negative?

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4. 4. justyntoo 09:58 AM 5/24/12

   i think this research should start from a new premise .first solar has achieved many levels , but , still a disapointing level of efficiency . maybe if we looked at different fields of exploration then ,we could find some insights from their - glitch resolutions. photon transfers , perhaps a surficant ladened water supply , less encumbering energy transfer mechanism , etc. as stated this process was always used for low level , high dependability and for laptop augmentation this is okay and about the best . for nano then it must be enviromentally reactive only .

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5. 5. Owl905 01:36 PM 5/24/12

   US photovoltaic installations doubled in 2011 (value $8.4billion), and the growth in 2012 is projected at 35%. Comments about 'disappointing levels of efficiency' are antebellum. It works very very well - but the manufacturing glut is squeezing profit margins. That's the key to the leaf turning into a shelf ornament - it's a loser in the price-performance curve.
   
   http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/14/us-solar-us-idUSBRE82D08J20120314

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6. 6. jtdwyer in reply to Owl905 04:48 PM 5/24/12

   Just curious - how do you know that the prototype "works very very well?" Thanks in advance.

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7. 7. Quinn the Eskimo 12:17 AM 5/28/12

   Okay, but I'm not raking them up when they fall. Nope. Not me. Have you ever tried to burn a pile of these leaves?
   
   Well, have you?

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